Smoke and Mirrors
by Lena Liz Carter
Summary: Grift to save the world... twice before Friday. One day Alec Hardison meets someone who looks exactly like Eliot Spencer, except he's catching gigantic animals for living and apparently works with a witch. Soon, old enemies show up and the Librarians and the Leverage team have to join forces to save the world.
1. Birds and Brothers

**Summary:** Grift to save the world... twice before Friday. One day Alec Hardison meets someone who looks exactly like Eliot Spencer, except he's catching gigantic animals for living and apparently works with a witch. Turns out the hitter has a secret twin, go figure. Things get even more complicated when Eliot is visited by a mysterious woman, who asks him to find someone for her – or she comes after Jacob.

 **Notes on what to expect:** Flynn is not going to appear in this fic, so don't expect any Evlynn. So far, there are no non-canon ships, but that might change. I'll just see what are the characters going to do next, because right now it doesn't feel like I'm in control much.

 **Note on the title:** The title is taken from a song „Smoke and Mirrors" by Poets of the Fall. I recommend it!

* * *

Alec Hardison was having a weird day, and for a man who had impersonated a voodoo priest in Haiti, an eccentric painter prodigy in San Francisco and an aloof millionaire in Baltimore, all in past three weeks, that was really saying something.

The first weird thing was the disheveled, yet gorgeous blonde with torn clothes bumping into him in the street. She didn't ask for help, she didn't even look very scared, more like pissed off. Hardison saw this expression on Eliot's face from time to time and it always meant that somebody was going to get hurt. The blonde muttered something that remotely resembled an apology and ran on to the giant bird.

Oh yeah, and there was a six feet tall bird currently feasting on the contents of an overturned hot dog stand.

Hardison rubbed his eyes, but it didn't go away. His best explanation was that Parker put something in his morning soda as a joke. It would have been pretty good, if the people around him didn't see the bird as well.

A man suddenly walked up to the creature. He held a bucket in his hand and waved a piece of a raw meat.

"C'mon boy, I have a nice piece of goat here. Want some? C'mere..." he lured it.

About ten feet from him a pretty little redhead was moving her hands as if performing a magic spell. She didn't notice the blood dripping from her nose, she was concentrated on an empty spot behind the bird. The man tossed the meat in the bird's direction and it caught it and swallowed it whole. The man pulled another bit from his bucket when the blonde reached them and disappeared into thin air.

Hardison blinked.

He had seen Parker disappear so many times, but it was always a matter of skill and stealth and people looking away. This time he didn't look away, he was sure he didn't even blink. The woman just was there and the next second she wasn't.

The man tossed the second piece of meat and as the bird caught it, a net flew out of nowhere and entangled the animal. It screeched, but the man leaped forward, caught one edge of the net and got to work. The blonde reappeared and between the two of them and a young Asian they managed to make a neat package out of the bird.

Hardison was the only person paying attention to the strange redhead, who had blood dripping from her chin and on her shirt by now. The danger was over, so he went over to see if she's okay. He reached her just in time to catch her as she fainted. Even after seven years spent in the vicinity of Eliot Spencer, Hardison knew next to nothing about first aid, so he was happy when the girl started to open her eyes in the matter of seconds.

"Oh, hi there," she smiled weakly and tried to wipe the blood off her face.

"Cassandra! Are you okay?" The young Asian ran to them, closely followed by the man who fed the bird and the blonde. "Told you the invisibility spell would melt her brain," he said to his companions.

"I'm fine, Ezekiel, really," the redhead, who was obviously called Cassandra, protested and tried to get up, but she got dizzy and fell right back in Hardison's arms.

That's when the others noticed him and the feeding man stepped forward.

"Thank you, we'll take care..."

Hardison looked up from the redhead and for the first time he actually noticed the man's face. And he knew him.

"Eliot?"

It slipped out, Hardison didn't mean to actually say that, because in their line of work, it was the safest to play along, but they didn't have any job and Hardison had seen Eliot just that morning and he didn't expect to find him feeding giant birds.

The other man tensed for a moment, then paused and sighed. "You know Eliot?" he asked. "He in town?"

"Yeah. So I gather you are _not_ Eliot?"

The not-Eliot rolled his eyes. "No, I'm his brother. Where is he?"

Hardison hesitated. There were secrets that weren't his to tell, but on the other hand, the resemblance was uncanny. Maybe they could meet on a neutral ground first, check each other out, so he gave the not-Eliot an address of a coffee shop near the Brewpub and told him to be there next day at ten o'clock. That should give them enough time to prep.

He set off to the Brewpub, hoping that after he tells Eliot, he'd still have all his fingers intact.

* * *

After they stored the giant bird (Jenkins insisted it's called a roc) in one of Library's special rooms and made sure that Cassandra really okay, Eve asked Jones to do a background check on the coffee shop and the mysterious man. She wished she could consult with Flynn, but he was somewhere in the Himalayas and left no way to contact him, so she went to find Stone.

He was, just as she expected, sitting in his favorite armchair in the architecture section of the Library, staring at a book, but not really reading it. Eve sat down in the opposite armchair, startling him.

"So," she crossed her legs, "who's Eliot?"

It took a moment before Jacob spoke and Eve could see how difficult it was for him. "He's my twin brother," he said. "Right after high school he enlisted in the army and we haven't seen him since. Called a couple of times, visited his high school sweetheart, but never stopped by at our place. Then he disappeared completely. When I came here, I tried to find him, but apparently he's not in the army any more. I don't know what to think."

"That's why you didn't leave," Eve realized. "You didn't want your family to lose you both."

"Eliot got in a huge fight with Pop before he stormed out. Real nasty, it went on for hours until they were both hoarse. Left Mom crying for days, the younger kids went to my aunt's so they didn't have to hear it."

Eve noticed that Jacob didn't say anything about himself leaving and she knew he was in the room for every second of that fight, torn between the loyalty to his father and to his brother, and finally choosing chains over freedom, because of the kids hiding in a different house. She had the feeling that Jacob was the one who sent his younger sibling's away to protect them, because that was what he did, what they both did – shoulder the weight so the others didn't have to.

"Are you going to meet him?" she asked carefully.

"I s'ppose I am. I just don't know what to say to him after twenty years of... after twenty years."

She briefly wondered what he wanted to say. After twenty years of cleaning up the mess his brother made? After twenty years of trying to be both brothers at once?

"You know, Pop never said his name again," Jacob confessed. "Never acknowledged his existence after that day."

"That's why you should go tomorrow. You should talk to Eliot, at least this once. You don't have to be brothers again, but just don't have to be enemies either."

Jacob silently nodded and Eve left him. She needed to talk to Jones about running a quick check on Eliot Stone, because something about the name rang a bell.

* * *

"Look at this! I told you there was giant bird!" Hardison gestured to the screen. Most of the footage of the incident had disappeared mysteriously, but Hardison was a wizard when it came to discovering hidden data.

On the other hand, everything the hacker said since he came back from his shopping was borderline crazy and the giant bird babble was way past crazy.

"Forget about the bird!" Eliot snarled. "Give me the intel!"

Hardion pulled up the first picture. Even though he didn't get all of the footage from the bird site, he found his mysterious foursome on other traffic cameras. First on the list was Jacob, Eliot's exact copy except for the hair.

"So this is your twin brother?" Parker asked, looking at the picture. "He has a different last name."

"I changed my name when I went off the grid. I didn't want to be traced back to them," Eliot shrugged. "What about the others?"

"I have to say, your brother keeps an interesting company. Ezekiel Jones..."

"Wait, _Ezekiel Jones_?" Parker shot up from her seat. "You mean this is Ezekiel Jones?"

"Okay," said Eliot slowly. "Who's Ezekiel Jones and why are we all saying his name?"

"He beat me to the Jade Elephant in Singapore! And again, with the Jewel of Valencia, in Valencia! He is a plague! A cocky, annoying, mocking-note-leaving plague!"

Eliot hadn't often seen Parker so riled up, but it made sense. Parker hated losing and losing twice, plus being taunted? She would probably strangle the guy on sight.

"Wait for it, the next one is even more interesting."

Hardison changed the picture again and Eliot knew this one.

"Okay, Hardison, it was a good prank and I don't know how you knew that we'd fall for that giant bird crap, but I draw the line here. Why would my brother hang out with a counter-terrorism specialist?"

"That's who she is? She looks more like a supermodel," Parker observed.

"That's Eve Baird, the youngest head of the NATO Counter-Terrorism unit in history," said Eliot and after he saw the questioning looks of his friends, he added: "In my line of work, you tend to keep track of people like her. Look, Hardison, next time you put together one of your little pranks, make it more believable. People like Eve Baird don't hang out with people like my brother."

"Believe me, my man, if I was trying to prank you, I would pick something much more realistic. It definitely wouldn't involve giant birds and invisibility spells. The last person is Cassandra Cillian," he pulled up a picture of a pretty redhead. "No bells?" Hardison asked expectantly.

Eliot shook his head and Parker looked bored.

"There's not much on her. The girl never stepped out of line in her life. She was a star pupil at school, a math prodigy, but she was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of fifteen."

Parker grimaced sympathetically. "That sucks."

"She dropped out of school, did a bunch of jobs like a hospital janitor and so on and she disappeared about two years ago. They all did."

"What?"

Hardison nodded. "Two years ago, every one of them left their lives behind and disappeared. Your brother left Oklahoma. Eve Baird ended her work at NATO. Cassandra Cillian left her job as a hospital janitor. There's not much on Ezekiel Jones..."

"Him too," said Parker. "He didn't do anything gossip-worthy in the last two years, and believe me, he used to do _only_ gossip-worthy jobs _._ "

"This doesn't make sense. Why these people? Why these four people?" Eliot wondered.

"They are a crew, like ours." Parker looked at him like it was obvious. "Show me all of them," she gestured to Hardison. "This one," she pointed at Colonel Baird, "is their hitter. You said this one is a math genius? She's probably the mastermind, planning the jobs. Jones is obviously a thief, plus he's a decent hacker," she sighed like it physically hurt her to admit it. "The only one who doesn't fit is your brother."

"Oh he does. What you don't know is that Jake has an IQ 190, spoke two different languages fluently and had a decent understanding of three others by the age of eighteen, plus he is an encyclopedia of art history," Eliot told them with eyes on his brother's face. _How many languages does Jake speak now? Probably about fifteen_ , he smiled. He knew he could just ask Hardison, but it felt wrong. He would meet Jake tomorrow and ask him in person.

"So they are what? Art thieves? People, we would know if there was another crew in Portland!" Hardison protested.

"We'll find out tomorrow," said Eliot.

"I don't think we should go," Parker shook her head. "This whole thing is weird. A NATO colonel? And there was some talk about Ezekiel Jones and MI6. They could be using your brother as a bait."

Eliot considered it for a moment. "Jake wouldn't sell me out."

"With all due respect, Eliot, how long since you last saw him? How do you know what he would or wouldn't do?" Hardison touched a sore spot with his question.

Eliot suppressed a growl. "It's a twin thing. You wouldn't know." But he was lying through his teeth. After twenty years, who knew what happened, what grudges could Jake hold. Parker was right, it was insane to go to that coffee shop tomorrow.

Only if he didn't go, he would lose maybe the only opportunity to make things right.

"Have an escape plan ready," he sighed heavily.


	2. Thieves and Tasers

"No, Cassie is definitely not doing any spells today." Everybody was making a fuss about the coffee shop meeting and they were getting on Jacob's last nerve.

"Look, we don't know what your brother was doing for the last twenty years and Ezekiel identified that Hardison guy as the best hacker in the world. And you know what it means when Ezekiel admits that somebody's better than he is. You need backup," Cassandra insisted.

"You're not doing any spells and that's final. You should be in bed after what happened yesterday," Jacob grumbled.

"Cassandra, are you up to driving the getaway car?" asked Eve while loading her gun. Cassandra lit up like a Christmas tree and caught the car keys Ezekiel tossed her. "Stone, stop being childish, we got your back whether you want it or not. I know I have heard about your brother before, I just can't remember where."

"And when Eve Baird has you on her radar, you're a bad, bad guy," Jones said from the corner when he was fiddling with something.

That was the last drop. "I am leaving now," Jacob announced.

"Wait, I'm driving!" Cassandra rushed to the door as if she was afraid somebody would steal her function, even though she was holding the car keys. Jacob followed her outside and Eve trailed after them with Jones.

They dropped Jacob off a block away and he walked to the coffee shop alone, while the others were taking positions, whatever that meant. The microphone Jones gave him was burning a hole in his pocket and he was fairly certain Baird had _at least_ two guns on her person.

Eliot was there already. His hair was long, which surprised Jacob, who was expecting a military haircut. He was in a better shape than Jacob and the lines in his face were slightly different. Perhaps now Mom would be able to tell them apart.

"Hey there, E," he said and sat down.

"Good to see ya, Jake," Eliot smiled at him, but Jacob could see how cautious his brother was. Eliot didn't trust him any more than Jacob trusted him. Kind of sad, considering that they took their first breath just twenty minutes apart and almost never left each other's side for the eighteen years that followed.

The silence between them grew until it seemed to fill the entire world. Jacob had a thousand questions, but every one of them sounded awkward in his head. _What did you do the entire time? Why didn't you visit me? What are you doing with a world-class hacker? Why did you leave in the first place?_

It was Eliot who broke the silence. "What did you get yourself into, Jake?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Colonel Baird, Counter-Terrorism unit of NATO. Ezekiel Jones, one of the best thieves in the world. That mysterious math prodigy with a brain tumor. And, if you can trust my friend, a giant bird and an invisibility spell. I don't think that's a part of a regular art historian job," Eliot counted.

"Your friend has a wild imagination," lied Jacob. "The bird wasn't that big, it was just a stray condor. I am doing a gig for the animal control now. And I have no idea where he got the invisibility crap."

"You're a lousy liar, Jake, always were. Just tell me one thing – are you in trouble?" Eliot asked, looking Jacob intently in the eyes, searching for any sign of dishonesty.

Jacob stared back. "I am not in trouble."

"So why does an art historian work for animal control?"

Anger rose in his chest and it took a good deal of self control not to hit Eliot in the face. "I am not a historian. I am an oil rigger. You ran away and I had to stay, keep the business running, take care of the kids. Looks like only one of us could chase the dream and you beat me to the punch." He tried to not sound bitter, but he failed.

"Aimee said..."

"Aimee lied. I asked her to."

"Why?" Eliot seemed thrown off.

"Cause if you knew, you'd come running back to pick more fights with Pop. It was easier to keep you out of this." Easier just to grit his teeth and carry on, instead of having a hope for a better life, which Eliot would bring.

"Look, Jake, I never meant to screw up your life. I just..."

"Needed to go," Jacob interrupted him. "Yeah, I get it. It was important. More important than family."

Eliot's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly he flinched and turned to look at the window.

"On my way," he muttered before he turned back to Jacob. "My friend found your friend and if we want to save lives, we should probably get there," he said and without waiting for an answer, he took off.

Jacob followed him to an alley nearby, where Jones was cornered by a blond girl waving a taser. Hardison was trying to shield Jones with his own body. Eve and Cassandra were nowhere in sight and probably weren't aware that anything was wrong.

Eliot grabbed the girl from behind and took her taser. She tried to snatch it back, but he shoved her and she stumbled into Hardison arms. The hacker caught her and held her.

"Dammit, Parker! We said no antagonizing and no freelancing!" Eliot growled.

Jacob peeked in the corner behind Eliot's friend. "You okay, Jones?"

Jones picked himself up from the garbage bags he fell on and tried to look as dignified as he could while smelling strongly of rotten food. "I'm fine," he muttered. "Look, sister," he turned to the girl, "I don't know what your problem is..."

"Does the name Parker ring a bell?" Eliot suggested.

For maybe the first time since Jacob knew him, Jones seemed to be at loss for words.

"P-Parker? As in _the_ Parker?" he finally managed to choke out.

Her glare was a sufficient answer.

"You deserved to be tasered, didn't you?" sighed Jacob.

"I did not! It was a fair competition, first come, first served. I was simply faster!"

"You didn't have to set off the alarms!" Parker snapped. "Seriously," she turned to her friends, "this guy is bad news."

"He doesn't look like _big_ news," Hardison eyed Jones sceptically.

"He is my Chaos," she insisted.

While Jacob and Jones were completely confused by the cryptic statement, Hardison and Eliot seemed to catch on and from their expressions it wasn't a good thing.

"Look, I get it, but we didn't taser Chaos, did we?" said Hardison with the same tone he'd use to calm down a skittish horse.

"Archie did." Parker smiled at the memory.

"The point is, we're here to reunite Eliot with his brother, not to settle scores," Hardison continued. Parker still pouted, but seemed convinced to at least put off hurting Jones for now. So, naturally, the things had to get more complicated.

"Freeze!" a familiar voice shouted. Jacob turned around to see Eve standing a few feet behind them, gun in her hands, and Cassandra hiding behind her.

"It's fine," he called. "I mean, Jones might get tasered some time soon, but I'm pretty sure he had it coming. Otherwise we're all fine here."

Eve relaxed, but didn't lower the gun. "How many of you are there?" she asked Eliot.

"Only us," he gestured to himself and Hardison and Parker.

"Good," Eve nodded and put her gun away. "Now, let's all sit down somewhere a girl can get a non-fat triple shot latte and talk."

* * *

Ten minutes later they were all seated in the coffee shop. The table was a little crowded and they had to make sure to seat Jones as far away from Parker as possible, but after a little shuffling the waitress left with their orders. Eliot expected another uncomfortable silence to ensue, but silence was probably an unknown concept to Hardison.

"Could you please tell them that the giant bird was real?" he asked Jacob.

"I was telling Eliot, it was just a stray condor. It wasn't that big," Jacob repeated his lie. "We work for animal control," he added clumsily.

"Yeah, so we're supposed to believe that a genius with a 190 IQ, a math prodigy, a master thief and a counter-terrorism expert all left their respective jobs to work for animal control in Portland?" asked Hardison, obviously unimpressed.

"It can be a very fulfilling job," said Colonel Baird nonchalantly. "What are the three of you doing here?"

"We run a pub downtown," Eliot replied briskly.

"So we're supposed to believe that an ex-military, a genius hacker and one of the best thieves in the world left their respective jobs to run a pub in Portland? How about we stop lying to each other so obviously?" Baird suggested.

"Well, what we do involves running a pub," Eliot countered. He was definitely going to make her spill the beans first.

"And what we do involves an occasional animal control, but neither of us is being very helpful right now. I'll start. We work for an institution that specializes in neutralizing unusual threats. Your turn."

The corner of Eliot's mouth twitched. Baird was good and she deserved at least a bit of truth. His crew could leave whenever they liked, there was nothing keeping them in Portland. "We run a consulting company. We help people who are screwed over and use our specific skill set to ensure that justice is served."

"See, now we're communicating," Baird smiled encouragingly. "There's one more problem. I can more or less imagine what these two do, but you Eliot... You dropped out of the army thirteen years ago. What happened next?"

Eliot tensed, getting ready for the confrontation. "None of your business."

To his surprise Eve simply shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. "Suit yourself. Jones, Parker, you're next. Parker, what did he do to you?"

"He stole the Jade Elephant and left a note in it's place, telling me not to waste my time with champagne. I was undercover as a waiter!" she yelled at Jones. A couple of customers turned to stare and Hardison had to remind her they were in public. "He beat me to the Jewel of Valencia and set the security on my ass!"

"Jones?"

"She didn't mention the time she beat me to the launch codes in Greece and all I found in the briefcase was the entire script of the Ghostbusters," Jones protested. "Also, she's the reason I'm not allowed to show my face anywhere near Mumbai."

"So if I get this right, the two of you have a long thief prank war going on?" Cassandra Cillian interjected. "And you never saw each other's face?"

"I never got a good look. Then again, she wishes she was half as awesome as I am!"

"I got the dagger of Aqu'abi."

"Magna Charta Libertatum. The one they have in Salisbury is a fake."

"Jack Latimer's ancient Chinese artifact collection!"

"I broke into the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square!"

Jacob leaned to Baird and whispered: "Where is a tentacle monster when you need one?" Eliot wasn't even going to ask what it was supposed to mean.

"I beat the Steranko," Parker announced victoriously. Jones seemed taken aback.

"Technically, we beat the Steranko," said Hardison quietly.

"Proof," demanded Jones.

"Oh I have plenty of proofs."

"Okay, kids," Baird stopped them. "Put away the rulers, you're both awesome. How about we all part as unlikely friends?"

But Parker, Jones and Hardison, with the occasional addition from Cassandra Cillian, were already babbling away about the nuances of the Steranko. Eliot turned to Jacob and asked: "So, how are the girls? How many kids does Rachel have?"

The next two hours passed in a blink of an eye. Jacob and Eliot exchanged numbers, while Baird was trying to stop Jones and Parker from holding a pickpocketing tournament in Portland. When they were leaving the coffee shop, Eliot was the last in line. He was almost at the door, when Baird stopped him.

"I knew you look familiar. Are you Eliot Spencer?" she asked.

There was no point in pretending. "I am."

"The word is out that you are not in the business anymore, so I will give you the benefit of doubt. But do any harm to them, directly or not, lay one finger on them and I promise that would be the last time you have fingers. Or head. Are we clear?"

The stories were true. Eve Baird was a righteous woman, who cared about justice above all. She was willing to give even him a chance and Eliot was determined not to screw it up.

"Absolutely clear, ma'am."


	3. Guys and Gals

_Another chapter, a bit of a filler, but contains important information :) Hope you enjoy it. There's a part that can be read as Jassandra, if you squint, but wasn't intended as such._

* * *

Eve Baird had heard a lot about Eliot Spencer.

Everybody in the business knew his name. He was the shadow in the dark, the lurking death. She had never seen his face, she had heard rumors that Eliot Spencer wasn't his real name, even rumors about freak science experiments granting him superhuman strength. She didn't believe in conspiracy theories, but she believed in the facts and the facts stated that Eliot Spencer was one of the most dangerous predators out there. Just the list of the people he had worked for contained some of the worst scum on the Earth. Nobody knew the precise body count, but Eve wouldn't be surprised if it was over a hundred.

When she heard that Spencer went out of business, she thought it was just another rumor. People like him didn't retire and they most certainly didn't change their ways. But during the coffee shop meeting he seemed tame, accepting her threat without threatening her back, keeping the situation calm. So, just to make sure, Eve called an old friend.

"Vance," a male voice barked on the other end of the line.

"Hi, Mike, this is Eve, Eve Baird."

"Well, ain't this a ray of sunshine in a shitty day. How are you, Eve?"

"If I told you, I would have to kill you," she joked. "Listen here, I need a favor."

"Anything for my pretty lady."

"Eliot Spencer. What do you have on him?"

There was a long silence. "That's a long story," said Vance finally. "Most of it is classified."

"I don't need the details, I just want to know what was he doing in the past couple of years. Word is that he's retired."

"Yes and no. He's not for hire anymore, he's running with a crew. Thieves, con artists, this sort of things. I guess they are doing some kind of vigilante work, they have taken down some big fish in the past few years. They were run by an ex-insurance investigator, but now it's just Spencer, a hacker and a cat burglar. And they are good, the best, actually," Vance added.

"Thanks, Mike, I owe you one."

"Eve? I don't know what is this about, but if you've met them... let them do the job. You won't regret it."

She paused. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I know you care more about justice than technicalities. Ride safe, Eve."

"You too, Mike. And thanks."

So the stories were true and Eliot Spencer became a Robin Hood. That was good, it meant that he wouldn't turn on them. They were mostly safe.

The next big problem was – should she tell Jacob?

* * *

The next day Jacob decided to check on Cassandra, to see how she was recovering from her invisibility spell stunt. He found her sitting in her lab, massaging her temples, her face showing pain.

"Cassie? Are you okay?"

She looked up and attempted a smile. "Yeah, I'm peachy."

"You don't look peachy." She was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes.

"It's just the magic," she sighed. "It's pretty exhausting and the brain grape doesn't like it. Hence the nosebleed and the headaches."

Cassandra got up to pour herself a glass of water. Jacob watched her and felt just as powerless as the day Eliot left. He knew Cassandra was slowly dying and he didn't forget her words about choosing her last day, only on days like these it felt real and he dreaded losing her. A lot of people had trouble seeing past the cute and bubbly, but there was so much more to Cassandra. She was the first of them who actually had the guts to stand up to Eve, she was willing to stand up to ghosts and serial killers and tentacle monsters that drove other people mad. Cassandra always made her own way in the world and it was a privilege to know her and a torture to watch her die.

"Is the magic making things worse?" he asked.

"Hard to tell. I don't think it's speeding things up, it just makes life more uncomfortable. But it's impossible to be sure without a CAT scan."

"So we get you a CAT scan," said Jacob. "Where can you get one?"

He sat down at her computer and moved the mouse to wake the machine up. The browser was open and the loaded page was a forum. It took a couple of seconds before Jacob realized what he was looking at. "The Lake Forum? That secret girl cult?"

She gave him a reproachful look. "You have your hobbies, I have mine. These women have really interesting things to say."

"You're doing more magic than we see, aren't you? Practicing spells in secret? That's why the spell took so much from you, because you weren't fully charged to begin with," he accused her.

"So what? That's my problem." She stood up, stepped back and took a defensive stance.

"What if it's hurting you?" He couldn't get rid of the image of her the day before, all bloodied, limp in Hardison's arms.

"Look, I appreciate the concern," she said irritably, "but it's my life. I'm dying anyway and I want to live before it happens. So mind your own business."

"I'm just worried about you," he told her.

"Everybody is," she said bitterly. "So worried about me that they forget to ask me what I want."

He opened his mouth to tell her that was not true, but she interrupted him.

"Just leave, Jacob. Please. Leave."

* * *

 _This is exactly why I installed the thermocameras in the vents,_ Hardison thought as he was browsing the images from the vents of the brewery, looking for an heat signature of a human body on said thermocameras. _Oh, there she is._

When Parker was upset, she was usually sulking somewhere in the vents. Thanks to the cameras he could find her and he had already seen that her earbud was online.

"Come down, mama," he said. "Found you."

"Not coming down," she protested.

"Still upset about Ezekiel Jones?" The silence was all the answer Hardison needed. "I have something to cheer you up, but I can't give it to you while you're up there," he continued.

"What is it?"

"Ezekiel Jones' address and schematics of his security system. Now, are you coming down or not?"

* * *

"You need to call you brother!" Jones barked at Jacob the first thing next morning.

Jacob looked up from the manuscript he was reading. "What are you talking about?"

"Parker broke into my apartment. I need you to call him and tell him to return the thing she stole."

"Who stole what?" asked Eve who just arrived.

"The thief girl running around with Stone's brother. She was at my place last night and I need her to give back what she stole."

Jacob frowned a little. Jones looked seriously freaked out, which was quite unusual.

"What did she take?" asked Jacob.

"Just a tiny thing from my safe, but I need it back."

"What was it?"

Jones sighed in defeat. "The dreidel."

"Are you kidding me?" Jacob ran his finger through his hair. "You mean now she can find anything she wants?"

"Of course not, she wound have to figure out how it works. But I took it from the Library, so it's my responsibility. I need her to give it back!"

"Oh no, no, no," Eve called from her desk. "Stone is not cleaning up your mess. You lost the dreidel, you get it back. You're a master thief, aren't you? Steal it back!"

Jones muttered something about having to do everything himself around here and stalked off. Jacob and Eve exchanged glances across the room and they both smiled.

* * *

Three days later, Eliot was chopping onions in the Brewpub's kitchen, when he realized there's another person in the room. He turned around and found himself face to face with a tall, thin woman with short ginger hair.

"Do you need anything, ma'am?" he asked, giving his voice just enough hostility to suggest that she's not welcome without actually being rude.

"Actually, I have a job proposal for you, Eliot Spencer," she said with a slightly fake smile. "I need you to find someone. I don't know what name she goes by these days, but I know people you can use to find her. She runs something called a Lake Forum. These," she produced four folders from her handbag, "are people I know have been in contact with her."

"I'm not in the business any more," Eliot turned back to his onions.

She reached in her handbag again and slid an envelope to Eliot. "You will be when you see my offer."

"You don't have enough money to buy me."

"It's not money. Look."

Life taught Eliot to not ignore sentences like this. He wiped his hands and opened the envelope. When he saw what was in, he felt like he was going to be sick.

It was pictures, photos of a man who looked a lot like Eliot – except his hair was short and the lines in his face were a bit different. Some of the photos were taken on the street, but a couple of them were from a living room, from a bedroom, and judging by how comfortable he was there, it was his home.

"Your reward will be Jacob Stone's life. All your instructions are in these," she laid the folders neatly on the counter. "You have three weeks before I come after him."


	4. Secrets and Standoffs

**And the plot thickens... Eliot is trying to solve the mystery of his cryptic customer, while Ezekiel finds something he wasn't supposed to see.**

* * *

Four women. Eliot put aside the two he knew and concentrated on the other two. One a university freshman at Harvard, the other was also a student at Wexler University, which Eliot hadn't heard about before. It turned to be a local university in east Massachusetts, known for most of people there being complete nutjobs. The thing was, when he dug a bit deeper, he found out that this girl dropped out of school a couple of months ago and set off who knows where.

He lined up the four faces in front of him and sighed. Three of them were science prodigies, but not the fourth. Two of them were in their early twenties, two of them past thirty. One blonde, one redhead, two brunettes. Different heights, different body types, almost nothing to connect all of them.

Next step was checking out the Lake Forum, but the page demanded registration and the captcha was undecipherable.

"You know, they say things are always better with a hacker," said a voice from above. Eliot looked up and there Parker was, hanging from the ceiling in one of her rigs, eating a bowl of cereal. "What?" she mumbled with her mouth full. "You thought we wouldn't find out?" She slid a little lower and looked over his shoulder at the screen. "Or you might just punch in the letters like any literate person."

"Don't tell me you can actually read this crap! It just a bunch of lines."

"Every book and every painting is just a bunch of lines. You should really get your eyes checked. Don't you need new contacts?" she looked at him curiously.

"Parker, it's impossible for you to read this!"

The door opened and Hardison walked in with two pizza boxes. "I see Parker decided to go ahead and start without me. Are you having computer trouble?"

"Yes, my biggest lead is locked behind a nonsense captcha!"

Hardison looked at the page and sighed. "Just let me get a soda and I'll crack it for you," he said.

"Why don't you just type the code?" Parker asked.

"Baby, there's no code. It's broken," Hardison said in his talking-Parker-out-of-crazy tone.

"It's right there. N-I-E-H. Do it."

Eliot and Hardison exchanged a long glance. They both knew Parker wasn't going to drop it until they tried, so Eliot rolled his eyes and typed the four letters she told him.

The damn thing worked.

* * *

It was highly unusual to find Ezekiel Jones in the Annex before ten. It was downright unsettling to find him seriously worried. He was at the main table, looking over some papers, a pen stuck behind his ear, biting his lip and mostly giving off the vibe of a general before battle.

"You better not be planning a heist," said Eve and made a beeline for the coffeemaker.

"No, you need to see this," he replied quietly. "Just... get your coffee first. This is going to be tough with the caffeine, I'm not putting you through this without it."

The concern in his voice made Eve's stomach clench. She obeyed him and when she was done, she carefully set her cup of coffee on the edge of the table and looked at the blurry photos in front of Jones. The pictures looked like he snapped them with his phone.

"You know how Parker stole the dreidel and you told me to steal it back? I was trying to find where she lives, which I didn't, but I found their headquarters. It's a microbrewery with a pub and they did secure it pretty well, but I broke in anyway. This is what I found. They are working a case now and look who popped up," he held up two of the photos.

Eve recognized both of them. "That's Lucy Lyon, the girl who opened a portal in Wexler. And Amy Meyer, from the science fair. Why is Eliot researching them?"

"It gets worse." He handed her two more pictures.

It was Cassandra and Eve.

* * *

"We're missing something here." Eliot was pacing in front of their board. After he confessed every detail of his encounter with the mysterious woman to Parker and Hardison, he was itching for action. Unfortunately that was not an option until they figured out their next step.

"Look, we have the link, it's magic. The forum is all about science and magic. We know that there were some suspicious circumstances at Amy Meyer's high school science fair. We know that Wexler University, where Lucy Lyon used to go, is the definition of weird. And we know that Eve Baird and Cassandra Cillian hunt giant birds and do invisibility spells for living, as witnessed by yours truly," Hardison listed.

"Okay," Eliot sighed heavily and said what he really didn't want to say: "Let's just accept the premise that magic is real. They can't be the only four people in the world to practice it, right? This can't be the link. There must be something that connects these four women..."

The words died on his lips, because as he said that, he turned around to look at Parker. Parker, who was the only one of them who could read the captcha. Before the thought fully formed in his head, he was already fishing out his phone, and by the time his brain formulated it, he had the number dialed. She picked up after the fourth ring.

"Hi, Sophie, I need a favor," he said without introduction.

"What is it, Eliot?"

"Are you near your computer? Can you check out one webpage for me?"

He told her the link and after a bit of typing, he heard her say: "It's a forum. What about it?"

"Can you read the captcha?"

"Sure, it's easy."

"Good, now ask Nate to read it."

"What are you talking about? It's just zigzag lines," Nate said on the other end of the line.

"Thanks, that's all I need. Bye!"

"Eliot, wait!"

But he already hung up and looked at the other two. He could see Hardison catching on, while Parker hadn't yet.

"Only women can read it," Eliot announced triumphantly. "That's the link, this Forum, only women can get in."

"Great," Parker said, clearly unimpressed. "Now what do we do with it?"

"Now," Eliot smiled and ignored Hardison's terrified expression when he saw the smile, "we can have an inside man."

Hardison cleared his throat.

"Fine, an inside woman. Really, Hardison? That's just a figure of speech!"

* * *

Eve had been staring at the pictures Jones snapped in the brewery, trying to piece the information together, while her coffee was still untouched where she left it. Why them? Her and Cassandra, she could understand, she expected Eliot and the others to investigate _them_. But why Lucy and Amy? Why not Stone or Jones?

"What are we going to do?" asked Jones quietly.

She could see only one option. She would have liked to bring Stone along, but in this specific situation, he'd be a liability. Now, it was her and Jones.

"You know where they work, right?" she checked, and when he nodded, she loaded her gun. "We're going to have a chat with Eliot Spencer."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jones gulp.

* * *

Jacob arrived to the Annex late that day and found only a slightly confused Cassandra and Jenkins.

"Oh, hi, I thought I missed a memo. Eve and Ezekiel have mysteriously disappeared," she told him before he could take his jacket off.

"What do you mean, disappeared?" In the Library, it could mean anything from _went out for a coffee_ to _accidentally fell into a parallel universe._

"Jenkins said they went to check something out, but there's nothing in the Clippings Book," Cassandra looked over her shoulder at said book.

"That's weird, but not much we can do about it," Jacob shrugged.

"I could do a locating spell..."

"No!" he barked and immediately felt sorry when he saw her crestfallen expression. "Not yet," he added hastily. "We can wait a bit more."

Cassandra walked away without a word and Jacob went to work on an article. Only his concentration was practically nonexistent. His thoughts kept running off to Cassandra, her brain grape and her magic, or to Eve and Jones and where the hell they could go. He wrote one sentence in the next twenty minutes and when he re-read it, he deleted it again.

He was saved by the Clippings Book. He called Cassandra and crossed the room to read the clippings. There was some usual clutter on the main table, which he usually didn't pay any attention, but a blurry photo caught his eye.

Cassandra came running seconds later. "So what is it?"

"Forget the Book," said Jacob gravely.

"What?" Cassandra blinked.

"I need you to do that locating spell. Now."

* * *

"Seriously? Hecate89?" Parker complained.

"Hecate was a Greek goddess of magic, that's a nickname a magic girl would choose." Hardison was, as per usual, very defensive of his cover stories.

"Besides," asked Eliot, "what do you want to be? ParkerThief?"

"How about Arrested?" asked another voice.

All three of them turned from the screen to see Eve Baird with a gun pointed at them.

"Dammit, Hardison!" Eliot gritted his teeth. "I thought we had security installed."

"Oh you did." Ezekiel Jones slid out from behind Baird's back and waved his smartphone at them. "Only I've been here before, so..."

Eliot quickly assessed the situation. Baird wasn't stupid, she wouldn't let him come close enough to grab her gun. Besides if there were any shots fired, there was no telling who might get hit, so Eliot did the only helpful thing possible. He moved slightly forward to shield Hardison and Parker better, even though it was a worse position for an attack. Baird noticed the maneuver and she frowned, not understanding why would an infamous assassin shield someone with his body.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"We're here to chat about that," she indicated the board behind them. Her face was there with the others, so there was really no point in pretending.

"How about I start?" Parker stepped forward, but Eliot stretched out his arm to stop her before she could get in front of him. "Magic is real. You know it."

"Of course it is, I mean, you didn't actually buy the stray condor story, did you?" scoffed Ezekiel.

"So why don't people already know?" asked Eliot.

"Because it's dangerous and unpredictable and almost impossible to control," Baird replied, fighting to keep her voice steady. Eliot laughed, because all those epithets had been used to describe him before. Sometimes all of them at once.

"Plenty of things are," he remarked.

"And we don't hand out those things on the street either, if we can help it."

 _Now, that's the counter-terrorism expert talking,_ he thought, remembering all his retrieval jobs. Sometimes the goods were dangerous, unpredictable and almost impossible to control.

"Good stalling, by the way," said Ezekiel, "getting Colonel Baird all defensive and answering your questions. What? Like a thief can't know a bit about manipulation techniques? So, back to the point – what's that board all about?"

"That's our business," Eliot tried to stall for a moment longer.

Baired cocked the gun. "Talk."

"We're not going to hurt you, you're just our leads," Parker said quickly. "We're after someone else."

"Who?"

The nickname was really stupid, Eliot hated it and he refused to use it, but he had to give Baird something, so she would put the gun away, so he said it out loud:

"The Lady of the Lake."


	5. Ladies and Letters

**New chapter, in which the plot finally truly begins.**

* * *

"So... Ezekiel and Eve went for a pint? To a closed pub?"

Cassandra and Jacob were standing in front of a brewpub, which, as Cassandra pointed out, still had two hours before opening time. Jacob tried the door, just as a young girl with a big folder under her arm walked up.

"We're still... Oh, hello, Eliot," she frowned. "What did you do with the hair?"

 _That explains a lot_ , Jacob thought. "I'm not Eliot. I'm actually here to see him."

"Oh, okay," the girl nodded like she was used to people looking for Eliot outside the opening hours and unlocked the door. "You're lucky I came early, I'm working on a sketch of the interior and I wanted to get some work done before the customers came. Anyway, they're probably in the back room," she indicated a corridor behind the bar.

Jacob and Cassandra exchanged a look and walked on as if they knew exactly what they were doing.

They walked in the middle of a standoff.

Eve had her gun pointed at Eliot, Ezekiel was having the time of his life, Parker was probably calculating escape routes and Hardison looked like he was itching to get his fingers on a keyboard. And there were those awful photos Jacob found in the Annex, printed in a bigger resolution and pinned to the board behind Hardison.

"You know, context would be _really_ helpful by now." Cassandra's voice sounded a whole octave higher than usual. "Because I have seen a psychopathic serial killer in a wish-granting house and this creeps me out even more."

"What?" Parker and Hardion asked in unison.

"Yeah, and I have actually _been_ the Picture of Dorian Gray, but the stuff here still takes the cake," she added, too concentrated on the board to realize that she was talking to muggles.

"They are looking for the Lady of the Lake," Eve explained, "and even though they didn't mention why, I dare to guess it's not because Spencer wants the outfit."

"Spencer?"

"That's the name I go by these days," said Eliot, not meeting Jacob's eyes.

Jacob rubbed his forehead. "So, there is a lot of explaining to do, and I'll leave the name for a better time. Start with the Lady of the Lake. Why?"

"We were hired," Hardison admitted. "Another woman, maybe she wanted in the special club."

"What did she look like?" Eve moved her gun just a bit to back up her question.

"Eliot was the only one who saw her..."

"Tall, but not as tall as you, thin, short ginger hair, there's even a contact in the file she gave me, but I guess it's a stolen identity, because a Lucinda McCabe disappeared over a year ago..."

"...at a science fair in Chicago," Eve finished.

Eliot frowned. "How do you know?"

"Because we met Lucinda McCabe in person," said Jacob. "And you were right, that's not her real name."

"And what is? I couldn't find any reliable pictures, no birth records, no match on the facial recognition..." Hardison rambled.

"You couldn't find any birth record because when she was born, there were no birth records yet," Eve interrupted him and she finally lowered her gun.

"You were deceived," Cassandra came to Eve's aid. "Lucinda McCabe is Morgan Le Fay, sister of King Arthur."

Parker burst out laughing. Everybody turned to her, but she just shrugged. "It's a joke, right? Those people aren't real. Are they?" she added, suddenly much less sure.

"Saw her," Jones raised his hand.

"Got called darling," Cassandra raised hers.

"Punched her," Eve concluded.

 _There is **a lot** of explaining to do, _Jacob thought as he saw the confused faces of his brother and his friends. _But right now we need to know if we're on the same boat._

"What did she offer you?" he asked.

Eliot pressed his lips together and remained silent. It was Hardison, who decided to spill the beans: "She threatened you, Jacob. Said she would come after you if Eliot doesn't deliver."

"Dammit, Hardison!"

"What, man, you want him to think you took the gig for money? We were trying to find a scenario in which nobody gets hurt."

Jacob looked at Eve. He was touched by his brothers concern and right now he wasn't even going to question why Morgan thought Eliot could find the elusive Lady, but they had more pressing problems at hand. The best solution would be to find both the Lady and Morgan, to warn the former and preferably kill the latter. But how? They weren't private detectives.

"It's okay, we can handle this," Parker told them. "Just step back and let us do our job."

"And what exactly _is_ your job?" asked Cassandra. "Kidnapping innocent women?"

"We told you, we help innocent people who got hurt. When the law can't touch the bad guys, we step in to do justice," Parker explained. "We can get everyone out of this without a scratch."

Both Cassandra and Eve laughed.

"You're in way over your head!" Cassandra exclaimed. "That's probably the most powerful sorceress in history! You can't steal her, you can't hack her and you can't punch her! You have no idea what she can do to you."

Parker seemed taken aback. "We have taken down dangerous people before."

" _People_." Cassandra rolled her eyes.

"Think this," Jones piped up, "you're muggles taking on Voldemort. That's how much chance you have."

Hardison eyes widened, but the metaphor was lost on Parker and Eliot. The thing was, Jacob had already realized what kind of people his brother was running with, and they could be useful. Morgan Le Fay was essentially a con artist and Eliot's crew seemed to know all the tricks,

"Eve," he said, "we might need backup."

"No way," she shook her head. "We can't trust them."

There was a knock on the door and the girl who met Jacob and Cassandra at the door walked in. She seemed oblivious to the hostile atmosphere in the room and Eve quickly hid her gun behind her back.

"Letters for you," she said and handed Eliot, Parker and Hardison one envelope each.

The Librarians stared at them and barely noticed the girl leaving. Those envelopes were familiar and when the paper inside started glowing golden, it was clear as day what they were.

"Nope," Eve said. "No, nope, nope, nope, nope! You can't be serious!" she yelled towards the ceiling.

"Oh, shiny," Parker smiled.

Eliot was holding his letter in two fingers like he was afraid it's going to bite him. " _A temporary aid to the Library?_ What the hell is this?"

Hardison was grinning from ear to ear. "I _knew_ my Hogwarts letter was late. It's magic hour, baby!"

"They... got invitations to the Library," Jones pointed out the elephant in the room.

"I don't like it," Cassandra wrinkled her nose.

Jacob didn't know what to think, but a part of him was happy to spend some time with Eliot again. Of course, there was the other part still wondering what exactly had Eliot been doing for the past twenty years and what the hell was Morgan Le Fay up to, but Jacob supposed he was going to find out in time.

"Seriously?" Eve was still talking to the ceiling. "Those three weren't enough, you had to give me their evil counterparts as well?"

* * *

An hour later, they were on the way back to the Annex. It took a while to pack all of Hardison's computer stuff and it would take half the time if Ezekiel didn't act like a five-year-old on Christmas Eve every time Hardison produced a new techno toy. Eve was just reflecting on the fact that she would be dealing with even more overexcited geeks when phone rang. As she let Jacob drive, she was free to pick it up.

"Hi, Eve, this is Mike."

She briefly wondered what the hell could Vance want before she greeted him. "Hi, Mike, what's up?"

"Remember that favor you owe me for the intel on Spencer? Well, I've had a beer with Sam Denning the other day and he said that you're the person to talk to when something weird happens."

"Define weird," she replied carefully.

"Someone dug up a previously undiscovered cave in Wales and stuff happened there. The statements are crazy, but it looks like a bunch of people turned into different animals. Mostly ungulates."

Jacob pulled up in front of the Annex and was ushering the three new recruits inside. Eve followed them. "Yeah, that's weird. You know what? I'm kinda busy at the moment."

"Eve, please, I don't know what to do about this."

"Just tell them it's swamp gas."

"Really, that's the best you got?"

They have reached the Annex and Eve heard the obligatory noises of surprise and awe from the newbies. The commotion lured Jenkins out of his hiding hole. When he saw the new recruits, he started with the expected lamenting.

"We are picking strays again? Do you want to start a soup kitchen while you're ignoring your jobs? The Clippings Book is going off all morning, but I guess you were too busy _socializing_." He spat out the last word like it was an obscenity.

"Oh yeah, we forgot to read it before we left," said Cassandra and waved at Ezekiel. Together they went over to the Book, which was bouncing up and down in it's spot, to see what was going on. Eve suspected that they simply didn't want to spend any more time near the new additions to their team.

She covered the speaker of her phone with her hand. "Don't get your bow-tie in a twist, Jenkins, they got invitations and everything." Then she returned to her phone call. "Mike, what you're telling me is my jurisdiction, but it's very low on the list of the priorities right now."

"And can you tell me what's above human-to-animal transfiguration then?"

"Let me put it this way: I'm not gonna chase pickpockets when I have a loose nuke here, okay?"

She walked by the Book, peeked over Cassandra's shoulders and stopped dead in her tracks.

"On second thought, I might send someone to check it out. Just in case," she interrupted the rambling Vance.

The article in the Book was about a new cave in Wales and a bunch of people turning into different animals.

Mostly ungulates.


	6. Goats and Grottos

_Sorry for the long intervals, boss at work keeps me busy :) Enjoy the next chapter._

* * *

After a lot of squabbling it was decided that Eve and Eliot would go to Wales to see Vance, while the rest would stay behind and work on the Lady and Morgan. When Jenkins heard Morgan Le Fay's name, he almost exploded, but Eve talked him down and persuaded him to give the team all the intel he had. Then she grabbed Eliot.

"Let's go, cowboy," she said.

"I'm booking you tickets," Hardison announced.

"No need," Ezekiel said, already setting the back door. "I'm dropping you at the nearest building, but you might have to walk a bit. It's actually the village where most of the transformations happened, so you'll probably find some people on the spot."

"Thank you, Jones. Cassandra, I want you on standby in case I need your expertise, this is most probably up your alley. After you," she opened the door for Eliot.

"What-what is this?" he asked.

There was something very satisfactory about seeing the hitter thrown off balance. When he stepped closer to inspect the door, she shoved him from behind, making him stumble all the way to Wales.

"Oh yeah, and the first step is usually a bit rough," she called after him before walking through herself.

She found him staring at the street sign next to them. "We're in Wales."

"Yeah."

"We went through a magic door."

"Yep."

Eliot took a deep breath. "Fine, I just hope you know what you're doing. What's our cover?"

She started to walk towards the center of the town. "We don't have one."

"Aliases?"

"No."

"Fake badges?"

"Nope."

"So how the hell do you people stay out of jail?"

Eve simply shrugged. "We wing it. I have my NATO badge, with Jones people are usually too distracted by trying not to strangle him, Stone can be charming when he wants to and Cassandra's cute."

He just muttered something unintelligible and shook his head. They have already reached the police vehicle parked on the main street. There was a middle aged policemen leaning against the side of the van, looking bored out of his mind.

"Hi, I'm Colonel Eve Baird, this is..."

"Dr. Troy Stewart, how are you doing?" Eliot beamed.

"Colonel Vance called us as consultants," she concluded.

"I did my thesis on collective obsessional behavior," Eliot supplied, sounding exactly like a Harvard graduate. "Colonel Vance thinks we might be dealing with a mass hysteria here."

"I'm pretty sure he said magic, but whatever," the policeman shrugged and pointed at one of the houses. "He's in number fifty-seven, doing interrogations."

Eve thanked him and waited until they walked out of earshot before she asked: "Where did you learn to lie like that?"

"I worked with a grifter for five years. You pick up stuff. I just hope I don't have to do a more elaborate scam, because I know jack about psychiatry," he muttered darkly.

They found Vance in the backyard with an elderly lady and a big ram. _Well, we were promised weird,_ she thought before she walked up to them.

"Mike, hello!"

"Eve, how did you get here so fast? And with Eliot Spencer," he added.

"That's classified," she said. "We're here because of your..." she eyed the ram suspiciously, "hoof problem."

"So why the hell did you bring Spencer?" Vance frowned.

 _Because I needed the rest of my team on the other case and I sure as hell wasn't going to leave him alone with them. Because I don't trust him and want to keep an eye on him. Because if I have to kill him, I don't want Stone to see._

"Well, if any of your goats tries to attack us, he can punch it," she quipped. "What you got?"

"There are nine reports of people being turned into animals. Four goats, three sheep, one deer and one gazelle. There are about five more people unaccounted for and two goats of unknown origin, but we haven't confirmed the identity. We also have one suspicious cat." Vance looked like he couldn't believe he was saying these words. Eve knew the feeling. "All of it happened in the span of six hours, between eight and two."

"And you said something about a cave?" she reminded him.

"Yeah, three miles north, local kids say that it definitely wasn't there yesterday," Vance nodded, "but maybe they're lying, cause the whole place's graffitied. Either they have been playing there or we have a new archaeological sensation."

"Good. Take us there," Eve demanded. She was already turning to leave, when the elderly lady caught her arm and pulled her closer.

"It was the man," she whispered. "He walked the street, talking about practice, and turned people into this," she gestured to the ram. "Please, help them."

* * *

"Okay, Mr. Jenkins, tell us what you got," Cassandra said, sounding like a smug teacher's pet.

"I'm sorry," Parker raised her hand. "What does he know?"

"Oh trust me," Jacob assured her, "he knows all there is to know about Arthurian legends."

"So, Lady of the Lake is a title, not belonging strictly to one person. It's a woman who is accepted into the society and learns science and magic. But I suppose that Morgan is looking for _the_ Lady of the Lake, the first one. Nimue."

"That sounds weird," Parker commented, but was shushed by Cassandra.

"Nimue learned all her magic from Merlin. He fell in love with her, something happened, nobody knows what, and she trapped him in a cave for eternity. She went on to found what now operates as the Lake Forum. She always taught magic to any woman willing to learn, but only to women. She was quite adamant about that."

"That's why only women can read that captcha," Hardison nodded his head.

"Exactly, Mr. Hardison. And Morgan was her first apprentice, she learned all she knows from Nimue. Magic helped her defeat Camelot and kill Arthur. She and Nimue are probably the most powerful witches..."

"Sorceresses," Cassandra interrupted him. "The preferred term is sorceress."

Jenkins gave her a slightly annoyed look. "The most powerful witches in history. Their power has ever been surpassed only by Merlin's."

"So if he's so powerful, why couldn't he just bust his ass out of the cave?" asked Parker.

"Nobody knows how or why Nimue overpowered him. Had he been there for the final battle, maybe Camelot wouldn't fall." Jenkins sighed, lost in memories for a moment.

"That's really convenient," said Parker.

"What are you talking about?" Hardison turned to her.

"Thinks about it from Morgan's point of view. You want to take Camelot. What's the first thing you do? You take their biggest gun. Except he's a bit too much for you, so you ask for help. And who you gonna call?" She paused, but when nobody took the bait, she continued: "Your teacher. That's what I'd do."

Jacob thought about it, but it actually made great sense for Nimue and Morgan to join forces against Merlin. He was right, they needed thieves on this one, someone who thought outside the box. Or at least outside a different box than the Librarians.

"That's a good point," Ezekiel admitted. "Still doesn't explain why is Morgan looking for Nimue now."

"You can't just look the Lady up on Facebook. She is elusive," Cassandra said. "She is not seen unless she chooses to be and any magical ways of locating her would tip her off. That's why Morgan needed somebody to find her the ordinary way. Ezekiel's right, the question is why. Maybe she wants Nimue to help her with her next evil plan?" she turned to Jenkins.

Jenkins looked older than they had ever seen him and tired beyond telling. "Like I said, only two people who could defeat Morgan were Nimue and Merlin. Anyone else she can handle."

"So she wants to kill her," Parker deduced.

"That is one of the options," Jenkins nodded.

Luckily they were saved by ringing of the phone on Jenkins' desk. He picked it up, but the communication was short and Jenkins didn't say much.

"That was Colonel Baird. She requested Miss Cillian and Mr. Stone on the site with a cure for people turned into animals," he announced. "You are going to be met by a Colonel Vance and you're supposed to cure the victims he shows you. After that he'll take you to see Colonel Baird."

* * *

The cave was creepy, but that was the least of Eliot's concerns.

He had received a glowing letter, walked through a magic door, met a man turned into a sheep and heard his wife claim that a wizard did it. All this while his head was still working through the fact that magic is real. Yes, Hardison did show him the bird footage, but Eliot had still thought it to be a hoax.

His reactions had to be fast, usually his life depended on it. Taking too long to process something meant slow reactions and that meant a gruesome and painful death. But right now he felt like he was trying to run through water – no matter how much effort he put into it, he was still too slow. It was driving him crazy. Fortunately this wasn't a battle and as long as he stood behind Baird and looked important, he was fine.

When he looked around the cave, he couldn't help but think how happy Hardison would be to see it. There were drawings on the wall, maybe runes? Eliot had no idea. And of course, there was a stone altar in the middle of the cave. Eliot cautiously approached it, half expecting to see dry blood, but he found only shards of glass on the ground next to it. He reached to pick one up.

"Don't touch it!" Baird's sharp warning stopped his fingers inches from the glass.

"Magic?" he asked and she just nodded. "So what, somebody let the Genie out of the lamp?"

"Sadly, no," she replied, searching the altar for other clues.

"Why not?"

"Because it's never the Genie's lamp."

Eliot shook his head at the cryptic statement and looked up just in time to see Jacob and Cassandra walk in the cave. Baird looked relieved to see them.

"Okay, geniuses, get to work. What do you see?"

Jacob barely even noticed Eliot, he was too busy examining the nearest sign on the wall. "It's old," he said, "and I mean thousands of years. Wouldn't be surprised if there were painted in the Roman era. There are Celtic elements present, just can't pinpoint any specific tribe or time."

Cassandra simply zoned out and began waving her hands and muttering to herself. "Nine pointed star on the ceiling, above the altar. But pointing to only eight symbols. Mhm, I taste cream cheese... Twisting, twisting... Christmas... Red and white..." She shook her head and pulled a map out of her pocket. After checking it briefly, she looked up and returned to the crazy talk. "Intersection, gray and white. It always comes back to white, but white is nine, not eight. Twisting the lines to a cage, but wouldn't work without the nine, which would be right..." she started spinning until she pointed at the entrance, "there. Oh!"

Jacob carefully picked up the shards of the bottle and almost dropped it after he looked at it. "Oh crap!" he yelled.

Both he and Cassandra looked at Baird.

"This is a trap," said Cassandra. "A prison cell, designed to hold magicians. It's positively reinforced, the more powerful the prisoner, the harder it is to get out. I just don't know who was in it."

Jacob held up the shard. "Well, this mark tells us."

"So, who are we dealing with?" asked Baird.

"Merlin."


End file.
